Chapter 39: Final Tournament: Defeating the Soft Sword, Battling the Stars!
"I'll tear you to bits, you cocky little cub! Die!"
Charging forward, Fang Niu seemed to lose her calm and collected exterior. She slashed and stabbed with every skill she knew, trying to circumvent that spear, but every time her soft sword neared Yun it stiffened and stopped responding to her will. All Yun had to do was swing out at that time and knock the rigid soft sword away, causing her to slowly begin to push Fang Niu towards the water.
Before long Yun had begun to completely dominate the match, and was only maintaining her Dragon Aura because the heat created very dry air, giving her more static to absorb and use. Being a skilled opponent, Fang Niu continued to angle her blocks to direct the force in a way that would not result in her going off the stage, but she was beginning to lose feeling in her hands from the impacts. She hadn't built up the resistance that most cultivators have to impact due to her soft sword style redirecting all the force, so the brutal hits she was now sustaining quickly wore down on her physical endurance.
Trying hard to think, Fang Niu stalled for time while she tried to decipher why she was being dominated suddenly. Retreating rather than fighting, she began to finally connect the fact that her sword stopped flowing like water when it neared Yun's body or weapon. Something was interfering with her ability to manipulate her weapon as she pleased and it was definitely related to her!
Just as she was having this realization she had a lapse of concentration as well. Yun didn't miss this opening and stabbed forward with her strongest attack. Just in time Fang Niu came to her senses and blocked the attack dead on, but she was pushed back straight to the edge of the arena!
Her small Vulpis frame working against her, Fang Niu hadn't had enough traction to stop the slide from the attack! One more swipe from Yun and she toppled into the water unceremoniously.
"Winner, Huli Yunlong. Next match, Xing Zhenya versus Zheng Xinya, please mount the stage."
Yun quickly left the stage and prepared to watch the next match. This would determine her next opponent! Watching the two mount the stage she had a deep impression of them both. Xing Zhenya was a slightly tall Vulpis and was a proud and arrogant sword cultivator. Zheng Xinya was a Felis and a lithe Water Element cultivator who used a whip.
The match began with an overwhelming assault by Zheng Xinya's whip, shadows filled the arena like serpents rearing up to strike before crashing down like waves on Xing Zhenya. Just as it seemed that there was no course of survival open to him, Xing Zhenya drew out his sword and slashed apart the shadows in the sky. His strike seemed to travel indefinitely, splitting apart the seams of reality itself.
Even the Elders appeared shocked by this. How could a cultivator in the early stages of Neidan Forging accomplish this? The only way is through the Space laws. Space was the sharpest sword, and with space you could cut through anything, so it made perfect sense for a Sword cultivator to also study the Space laws. But where did he acquire such a deep knowledge of them? He must be a personal disciple of some hidden elder.
On the arena stage the two warriors continued to battle. Xing Zhenya was an unflappable bastion, standing tall and slashing apart obstacle after obstacle as he advanced step by step towards his opponent. Zheng Xinya, on the other hand, was desperately using all of his Water laws to try and strike his opponent. Eventually he began to adapt and figure out that he could reconnect his whip shadows using the water laws after they were cut apart, but by the time he attempted it for the first time he had a sword already pressed to his throat.
"Concede. This battle has no reason to continue, your techniques cannot reach me."
The cold, emotionless voice of Xing Zhenya rang out across the arena as he spoke this directly to Zheng Xinya. Taking a moment to think, Zheng Xinya eventually nodded ever so slightly to surrender, before stepping back and putting his weapon away. Xing Zhenya then put his sword away and walked to the edge of the arena calmly before dismounting the stage and sitting calmly on the shore.
Yun spent the rest of the day going over the battle in her mind, examining Xing Zhenya's attacks. Each attack looked extremely simple, just basic slashes of the sword, but the concept of Space inherent in each strike made these simple strikes into something more like a nightmare.
The other four matches of the day were each pitched battles, but none of them held any interest. No warrior showed enough power to make it seem that they would be able to win against the upper echelons of the tournament.
While Yun meditated on her next battle, her brother looked down at her with worry from the stands. She was preparing to engage in a battle against someone who looked like they were completely unbeatable, and whose sword strikes could split the skies, no less your body.
Meanwhile, as Yun was trying to focus on understanding the mysteries of her opponent's attack, she was constantly being distracted by the gnawing feeling she was forgetting something. Before long she realized that what she was forgetting was the expert's spirit that she had spoken to. He said they had spoken twice, and that he'd been with her for her whole life. This thought was more than a little disruptive.
Where did this spirit come from? Could she truly trust him? She was less than comfortable with his presence, but what could she do about him? His spiritual strength was obviously extremely high, since neither she nor any of her sect Elders could even detect his presence. She was determined not to be manipulated, but she also realized that she would likely not even be able to discern if she were manipulated by such a powerful soul.
She needed to find a way to confine him. Some way where she could separate him from her own soul without putting him at risk, thus preventing him from retaliating. Definitely, once she returned to the sect, she would have to talk to Elder Lei and Senior Sister Zhu Cai about what possibilities there were. Finally having decided on a path to work towards, Yun managed to rein in her thoughts and focus on the analysis of Xing Zhenya's technique once again.
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